Chapter 3

Adri had finally awakened after a few moments. But something was wrong. What had happened to her wounds? She did not find one single scratch on her. Had everything that happened the other night been just a terrible nightmare? If it has been, why did she still have her mysterious key weapon? And how come she was in a boat and not in her bed?

“Where…am I?” she said when she managed to sit upward.

“Oi, good to see that you’re alive, mate,” a female, Australian accented voice said. “I thought ya might’ve been a poor, drowned soul.”

“Huh?” Adri looked sideways to see who had spoken.

“I’m right behind ya,” the voice said again.

Adri turned around and found the one who spoke: a girl with blonde hair tied up in a scorpion tail-like braid and cerulean blue eyes. Her cheeks and her arms had some face painting. She had on a necklace made of purple beads around her neck. She wore a blood red vest with a red blouse underneath that was a few inches above her belly button, red shorts that went halfway down her thighs, and some brown traveling boots that were very dirty. Her palms were wrapped in bandages. She had a brave smirk on her face and had her right hand on her hip.

But why did this girl look so familiar? ‘I remember seeing her somewhere before, but where?’ Adri thought.

“What were you doing out here, anyway?” the girl asked.

Adri came out of her thoughts and tried to remember. Why was she out in the ocean? The only thing she can remember was when the shadowy monsters attacking her home, but nothing else. “I…don’t know,” she said, confused.

“Whaddaya mean ya don’t know? Eh?”

“I can’t really remember what happened. My mind’s kinda blanking out right now.”

“Huh,” the blonde haired girl scoffed. “You’re weird.”

The young heroine looked down and sighed depressingly. “That’s what everyone thinks.”

“Oh, come on, now!” Adri’s new acquaintance said in annoyance. “I don’t mean that in a rude way.”

“What?”

“Ah, just forget about it! What’s your name, anyway?”

“It’s Adri. What about you?”

“Call me ‘Kid’.”

Adri arched an eyebrow at Kid. “Are you sure?”

“Well, it ain’t me real name, but I’d rather use this name, ‘cause I don’t really like me real name.”

“I see…”

Then, Kid looked at Adri’s key weapon. “…I see that you’re another Chosen of the Keyblade.”

“Keyblade?” Adri asked in confusion and looked at her weapon. “Is that what this is called?”

“Yep! One of the most legendary weapons of all!”

Adri arched an eyebrow at Kid again. "You don't have to sound too optimistic about it."

"Okay, fine," Kid said and cleared her throat. "Although I don't like explainin' all the details, the Keyblade is said to be the only weapon that can save all the worlds from the Heartless."

"Heartless?"

"They're also known as the beings with no hearts. Not the organ type, but the heart that holds our feelings and memories."

Adri could only gasp in response. 'Could they be the monsters that attacked me?'

"Heartless usually feed off other people's hearts to make more of them," Kid continued. "It's the darkness within their hearts that attracts them. And there's darkness within every heart, includin' you and me."

"Feed off other people's hearts..." Adri repeated, then remembered Chris's tragic fate.

:FLASHBACK:

Suddenly, she saw that her shadow was getting bigger. But when she turned around, it wasn’t her shadow at all, for there was a black monster at the height of six feet, with glowing yellow eyes and a pair of long, bug-like antennas.

The monster raised its sharp claw and aimed at Chris. Adri gasped in terror. “Chris! Look out!”

To that, Chris turned around and saw the monster. He was about to escape, but he was too late. The monster stuck its claw into his chest. Everyone watched in terror as the monster released its claw and took out something that looked like a heart, not the organ type, but something like a heart one can see on Valentine’s Day. Then, Chris’s body morphed into another monster.

:END FLASHBACK:

'I guess Chris's heart had so much darkness, the Heartless took his first instead of someone else's,' Adri thought again. 'I should be sad about what happened to him, but it's hard for me to feel sorry for someone I loathe.'

"But there's another reason why they're after you besides the fact that you have darkness in your heart," Kid said, snapping Adri out of her thoughts.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"They're after you 'cuz you weild a Keyblade. The Heartless have a great fear of the Keyblade. And if they take your heart, the Keyblade might be taken away as well. Of course, they have an easy plan on doing that."

"And that certain plan is..."

"Whoever they find out is a Keyblade master, they attack them before they get their Keyblade. Then, they go to the keyhole, or the entrance to the core of that world, and swallow it up. So, it's possible that your world was swallowed up, too."

Soon enough, Adri was lost in confusion again. "Wait a minute! What do you mean by 'my world'?"

"There are more worlds besides your own and this world."

"...Are you saying that this isn't my city at all?"

"There aren't any cities here. Just a few large towns and fisherman villages. So, I guess you can say that this ain't your world at all."

"I...I can't believe this!"

"I understand that it's hard for you to believe, mate. When someone important to me told me that, I was a bit shocked myself."

Adri looked at the ocean in wonder. Could this female samaritan be telling the truth? Are there more worlds besides her city.

"Hey, Adri," Kid said. "How 'bout we travel for a while. We should search for the keyhole in this world."

"What do you mean?" Adri asked her new friend.

"For the past year, the Heartless appeared in this world and wreaked havoc around here. I'm guessin' they're trying to find the keyhole here. With that Keyblade of yours, we can find the keyhole and seal it away. And when the keyhole is sealed, the Heartless might disappear and no one would die 'cuz of them. Whaddaya say, Adri?"

Adri thought for a while again. Could she trust this woman? After all, this may be just a trick and she may end up getting hurt or possibly killed. Then again, she didn't seem like a bad person.

'I guess I have no better option right now,' she thought to herself, then nodded in agreement. "Okay, Kid. Let's travel together."

"That's an obvious choice," Kid snickered, then shook Adri's hand. "Let's do our best to stop the Heartless."

"Yeah!"

_________________________________________

It was already night time. Adri and Kid had spent their time talking to each other about what their worlds are basically like. They laughed a few times and gasped at the shocking parts. Now, they were on the land and they had already prepared camp.

Kid was looking up at the stars, while Adri was sleeping soundly. The young thief looked at the Keyblade master with a smirk on her face.

'She sure is a heavy sleeper,' she laughed in her thoughts. 'But why is she the chosen one of 'that' Keyblade? I thought it was gonna be that one girl mentioned in the prophecy.'

Kid sighed to herself. 'Maybe I'll find out why sometime durin' this journey. Though, I do feel guilty about this. After all, I'm not really joining her just to save the world.'

Then, Kid took out a necklace with a shark tooth on it. She held it close to her chest and whispered one word to herself.

"...Serge..."

:FLASHBACK:

In a beach, a boy and a girl were standing next to each other, looking at the sky.

A swirl of light appeared and a little girl appeared. This child resembled the girl on the beach in so many ways, there had to be a possibility that they must be related.

She held out her hand to the girl. "Kid," she spoke with a voice that wasn't like a child's voice, "...it's time to go."

Kid looked down with sadness, then at the boy standing next to her. "Goodbye, Serge."

Kid was about to hold the little girl's hand, but she stopped when Serge grabbed on to her hand.

"Hold on, Kid," he said before taking off a necklace with a shark tooth on it. "I want you to have this."

He then placed the necklace in Kid's hand. "I want you to keep this as a memento of me."

Kid looked at the necklace, then smiled. "Okay. I promise to keep this with me always."

Then, the young thief held on to the little girl's hand and walked into the swirling light.

When they stopped walking, Kid turned to Serge and called to him. "Serge! I promise I'll find ya! No matter the time period, no matter the world, I'll find ya! I'm sure...I am sure I will find you."

Suddenly, the light disappeared, but Serge heard Kid say one last thing to him.

"I...love you, Serge."

:END FLASHBACK:

A tear slid down the thief's cheek, smearing some of the face paint she had. But she wiped it off and was about to fall asleep.

Before she closed her eyes, she left herself with this edict:

"I will find you...Even if I have to search the world over...Sometime, somewhere...I'm sure..."

Then, Kid closed her eyes and was fast asleep.